Politics

BEIRUT / Reuters Syrian rebels in a besieged area northeast of Damascus have been told they must accept state rule or leave, a rebel group said on Tuesday, as the government and its Russian ally seek to wipe out the last pockets of opposition territory near the capital. The ultimatum to the rebels of eastern Qalamoun was served to civilians ...

BEIJING / Reuters China appreciates North Korea’s “important efforts” to ease tension on the Korean peninsula, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told the North’s foreign minister on Tuesday, hours after he called on all sides to stay focussed on talks. China has traditionally been secretive North Korea’s closest ally, though ties had been frayed by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s ...

GENEVA / Reuters United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the warring sides in Yemen on Tuesday to reach a political settlement to end a four-year-old conflict that has left 22 million people in urgent need of aid. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi echoed the call for a return to the negotiating table and said that his internationally-recognised government was working ...

BERLIN / Reuters German prosecutors filed a request to a regional court on Tuesday for the extradition of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges of rebellion over the region’s campaign for independence. Puigdemont has been held in a detention centre in the northern German town of Neumuenster for just over a week after he was ...

LONDON / Reuters Britain is looking for a “proportionate way” to respond to the threat posed by Russia, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday, after a retired Russian army official said the poisoning of a former spy could start a new world war. “We need to respond in a proportionate way to this aggressive behaviour from ...

JERUSALEM / Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was cancelling an agreement with the UN refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants, bowing to right-wing pressure to scrap the deal. Hours after announcing the arrangement, which also would have given thousands of other migrants the right to stay in Israel, Netanyahu posted on his Facebook ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump didn’t just propose a summit meeting to Vladimir Putin when he called the Russian leader last month. He invited him to the White House, according to the Kremlin. “When our presidents spoke on the phone, Trump suggested having the meeting in Washington at the White House,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on ...

Bloomberg The failure of President Donald Trump and Democratic lawmakers to strike a deal on young undocumented immigrants puts the divisive issue into the middle of some hotly contested campaigns for November’s midterm elections — ones which could tip control of Congress. A relatively small number of people are affected personally by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that ...

Bloomberg Israel threatened to use greater force to quell violent Palestinian protests along the Gaza Strip border, rejecting allegations it used excessive firepower against demonstrations that left at least 16 Palestinians dead. The protests, which Israel estimated drew 40,000 people, were the first of six weeks of planned anti-Israel actions meant to highlight the Palestinians’ plight as refugees. Israel said ...

Bloomberg North Korea has threatened to go to war over broadcasts across its militarised border that included the K-pop songs of South Korean bands like Red Velvet. Kim Jong-un was clapping along and posing for pictures with the music group. Kim’s surprise appearance at a rare pop concert in Pyongyang was the North Korean leader’s latest diplomatic overture as he ...